


Parting Glass

by PeacefulPhoenix



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Identity, Love Confessions, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-11 00:26:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7867867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeacefulPhoenix/pseuds/PeacefulPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After discovering who he really is, former-Paladin Danse has a lot of questions. It seems the world is falling apart around him. The only stable thing left in his life? Riley, the Sole Survivor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parting Glass

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was written as a giveaway prize for sentinel-synth-lover on tumblr. I had a lot of fun working on it, and if you're interested in commissioning a piece of your own, check out my tumblr (60-minuteman)

The plodding of feet on cracking pavement and the subtle hiss of hydraulics was the only thing keeping Danse grounded in this world. Everything else had failed him. He may not have known much of the world but he knew that the Brotherhood would always have his back, he knew that synths would one day destroy the world, and he knew that he was human. Overnight, all of that had changed. He wasn’t human and Maxson had ordered him killed for it. Whoever the real Danse was, M7-97 had replaced him long ago. 

The one thing holding his whole world together had been Riley. She’d found him broken and alone and lost, bringing with her the orders for his execution. A cold sense of dread had seeped into every fiber of his being and he’d been ready to let himself die. She hadn’t. Instead of a gun, she extended to him her hand, a lifeline out of this mess. 

They walked side-by-side now, limbs weary and heads hanging low. There was no need for the pleasantries of a smile or a positive outlook on life right now. No energy for it either. They would need all they could when they finally reached the settlement. Danse didn’t even realize the tears sliding down his cheek until Riley laid her hand on the arm of his power armor and gave a ghost of a smile. No matter how small a gesture, it soothed something in him. 

The road curved and houses of scrap metal and wood rose above the browning trees and brush. The change in Riley was night and day. A bright, pleasant smile painted her lips, her shoulders were thrown back, and her chin held high. Everything from her walk to her hair had an air of nonchalance that he had trouble disbelieving despite seeing her only moments over, the exact opposite of how she was now. 

Bodies milled around the make-shift streets, some headed pointedly somewhere, others wandering aimlessly, chatting to other passers-by. They made it nearly all the way to the flimsy gates before someone called out their arrival. Not very good defense, Danse noted. “She’s back!” a settler standing atop a guard post shouted before disappearing from sight. 

The pair reached the gate just as it swung open and revealed a crowd of people already standing behind it. Riley let out a twinkling laugh that reminded vaguely of bells. “Hello to all of you, too,” she said as she walked into the group. Each hand was held out on either side, palm up, brushing against the fingertips of the settlers and her friends who had reached out to great her. Dressed still in bulky, awkward armor and standing at least a foot taller than every other person there, Danse felt rather out of place following her. 

As Riley reached the edge of the crowd, Hancock offered her his hand and she accepted with a smile. Stepping up onto a short, stone ledge she turned to face the settlers. “I’ll probably only be around a couple of weeks. I’ve heard that you guys are low on oil so I’m currently negotiating a deal with the Starlight Drive-in.” Whoops and cheers spread some in the crowd until she raised both her hands up, calling for silence. “Additionally, I am officially calling for an end of all trade and communications with the Brotherhood of Steel. Thank you all for the work you do. That will be all.” 

A thick silence fell over the crowd as though they were all waiting for something to happen: some punchline or a retraction of the statement. Nothing came. All eyes fell to Dance. The gaze of some of the settlers darted to Riley or their friends, others were fixed. Then the whispers began quickly growing into a dull roar. 

“I can answer any questions at my home later,” Riley shouted before once again taking Hancock’s hand and stepping from the ledge. Danse was at her side in a moment, eager to be as far from here as possible as soon as possible. She seemed to have similar ideas.

A subtle shift in position had Hancock’s hand wrapped around Riley’s wrist, forcing her to stay even as she tried to leave. “What the hell is going on, Riles?” he hissed, casting a glare at Danse before once again fixing his eyes on her. “You can’t just say shit like that then leave.”

The ex-BOS paladin stepped forward, extending his arm between the ghoul and vault-dweller. “You’d do well to let her go,” he stated, mustering all the energy he could to make it sound like an order. It must have worked because Hancock released Riley’s wrist and put his arms up in mock surrender. 

“I’ll explain it all,” she promised as she began walking away, ushered by Danse. “Gather the others and come over. We’ll talk about it.” She said nothing more, not even waiting for an answer before hurrying along. “You don’t have to be there when I tell them. My place has two beds, you can take the guess room. Leave your armor outside and go try to get some sleep. I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.” He had no interest in disobeying an order like that so he simply nodded and kept walking without another word.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sleep came in waves for Danse. Lights and sounds bled in through the thin and broken walls, stirring him on and off for hours. Exhaustion drove his eyes closed, muscled arm thrown over his eyes to offer some protection from the glare. In vain, he attempted to block out the sound.

“Can we even trust him?” MacCready hissed. 

“Of course we can,” came Deacon’s retort. “It’s not like he’s a supermutant. No offense to present company intended. Synths aren’t inherently evil.” Strong grunted but remained otherwise silent. 

Valentine spoke up next. “RJ might have a point. Suddenly realizing you’re not human… It can mess with your head.”

As Danse drifted into sleep once again, his mind played back everything he’d ever been told about synths as dreams. He saw himself destroying everything he’d once valued. And Riley. Over in his head again and again, he saw Riley dead by his hands and cradled lifeless in his arms.

When he next drifted out of his sleep, the hushed tones of Preston floated through the walls. “-Brotherhood won’t just let this go. Regardless of how we all feel about their goal in the Commonwealth or Danse, you defied a direct order from Elder Maxson. What does that mean for the rest of us? What will they risk to do the mission you failed to?” 

A silence fell before Riley finally responded. “What’s done is done. Danse stays. You don’t like it, I expect you out of here by sunrise.” Quiet argument followed the declaration but Danse couldn’t be bothered to listened to it. What she’d said played in his mind on loop, warmth blossoming in his chest and feeling a sense of protection like a blanket had just been placed over him. 

Light roused him once again, hours later. The beams of light spilled in through the cracked window between the room he slept in and the street outside. Birds sung and dogs barked somewhere across the settlement. Everything seemed wonderful. Until the reality of the world came crashing back to him all at once. 

A loud thud followed his feet as they crashed to the ground. All his limbs felt heavy and he pondered for a moment if there were actual muscles in them, causing them to bend or if, instead, it was electronics. Deciding he wasn’t yet ready for the answer, he stood, ran a hand through his hair, and left the room. 

He was greeted by a rather formless lump on the couch that was he realized, upon further examination, Riley. He could hardly remember the snippets of conversation he’d heard during the night but it was obvious that she was exhausted by it. None of this could have been easy for her. For as long as they’d known each other, Riley had helped people. She was a good person. It’s what had endeared her to Danse originally. And now, it seemed her good nature was taking it’s toll on her. 

Electing to let her remain at rest for the time being, Danse stepped outside. Immediately, his power armor loomed before him, discarded rather carelessly yesterday. The thought of seeing the Brotherhood insignia proudly displayed on the chestplate made him sick to his stomach. When he sought it out, his stomach did a flip. Where it had been only hours early, there were now only scratch marks carved into the metal. 

Shiny silver streaks stretched across much of the chest and across the arms where his rank had been displayed. It must have taken a great deal of time and effort to do it. Fixing the scratches left behind would take some additional work but it was nothing out of the question. 

For a moment, his eyes gazed back into the house and to Riley’s sleeping form. She had done all this… For him… Not sure how he felt about the tightening in his chest, he filed the information away to the list of things he wasn’t ready to face just yet.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Originally, the settlement had been a ramshackle farming homestead. A small plot of tatos had been fenced in by shredded chicken wire. Beside the plot stood a single shack, near to collapse and offering next to no protection from the elements.

Now, over 10 houses dotted the land, sturdy and insulated. Purified water was bottled and used throughout the settlement, cleansed from a babbling stream that ran on the opposite side of the colony from the street. Several crops now grew in plots near several of the houses. Settlers, armed well by Riley and the Minutemen, patrolled all hours of the day, ensuring the safety of all.

Riley’s favorite part, however, had to be the firepit she’d built by the stream. Everyone else had called it a waste of resources and had refused to help so she’d personally gone out and scavenged every stone and scrap of metal. Now, it was one of the most popular places in town. Hancock, Cait, and MacCready never seemed to run out of ways to snark about that but she always remained silent on the topic, merely adopting a faint smile any time she saw people relaxing in the chairs around the stone pit. 

Tonight, Riley was among the people beside the flames, lyrics to a long forgotten song drifting from her lips like a prayer. To her left Danse lay in the grass on his side, eyes glued to the licks of flame reaching for the sky. To her right, Cait sat in a chair, eyes closed and head tipped back humming along. Deacon and Preston sat opposite them.

The light of the fire caught Deacon’s shades just right to cause them to gloss over. It was quite odd to wear them at night, Danse mused. No matter how far the settlement had come, it was yet to have electric lights and the fire was nowhere near bright enough to call for eye protection. Of course, hardly anyone believed Deacon when he claimed that the he was simply sensitive to light. They offered him a certain protection for the world. And, well, Danse could appreciate the desire right now. 

In this moment, however, he didn’t feel he needed them. The faces he saw, illuminated by the flickering off the flames, displayed no hostility, disgust, or distrust. All around, crickets chirped their songs. Soft babbling from the stream set a rhythm for the night. Fireflies floated through the air, blinking on and off in time with the rest of nature. Everything was so perfectly in balance in this one little moment. 

In a way, he felt very small in this moment. When the bombs had fallen, humanity had taken a huge hit, forever changed by the radiation. Yet here these small creatures continued to thrive. Such a world so huge and resilient wouldn’t care if he were here or gone. And for the first time in his life, Danse found himself comforted by the thought. Everything around him set him at a peace he could never have had with the brotherhood. There were no expectations of him here. He was free to just… be.

When finally his thoughts strayed once again to reality and his companions by the fire, he found Riley’s eyes on his, a faint smile on her lips. Still she sung beautiful and sorrowful lyrics but it seemed almost absent minded, her attention instead focused on him. Everyone at the fire seemed to have nodded off. 

Just for a second, he allowed himself to revel in the attention and to return it. He allowed himself to take in every beautiful feature, every hair, every twinkle in her eyes and there were so many. She was perfect in every sense of the word. Untouched by the radiation and evil of the wasteland. All her energy was dedicated to helping people, a goal the Brotherhood of Steel had always claimed to believe in. They had never done nearly as much good as she had.

Suddenly, it hit him like a wave. Danse was 100% head over heels in love with Riley. And now, sitting here, staring into her eyes and lacking the power armor that usually shielded him from other people, he felt very small. It’s not like his love for her was a new thing. He realized that now. For months he’d had the same feelings. This was just the first time he realized.

Trying to find some measure of composure he sat up and coughed into his first. “Riley would you- can we-” He broke off, shaking his head and taking a moment to collect his thoughts. Ever patient, Riley remained quiet, contributing only a small giggle that reminisced of bells. “Let’s go for a walk,” Danse suggested.

She stood from her chair, arching backwards and extending her arms in a stretch before straightening out again and offering her hand. “I would love to.”

For the first several minutes, nothing was said. The pair walked side-by-side along the river, Danse staring at his feet and Riley at the world around them. After giving him ample time to begin a conversation, she was the first to speak up. “Was there something you wanted to talk about? You’re doing okay?” Concern was obvious in her tone and her fingers came to rest gently on his arm. 

The question almost made him laugh. He was better than okay and completely terrified all at once and honestly, he was lost on how to answer. Finally he managed a, “yeah, I’m okay,” before falling silent once again. It took him several more minutes to figure out his next sentence. “This hasn’t been easy for me,” he began, eyes pointedly fixed at the spot just before his feet and hands clasped tightly behind his back. “Everything is changing. But you…” He couldn’t say it. Not outright. He wanted to so badly but he just couldn’t. “You haven’t left me. I appreciate that.”

Riley stopped walking at once and Danse did as well, turning to face her and meeting her gaze finally. In her eyes, he saw a look of pure determination that frankly confused the hell out of him. Had he said something wrong? 

“I haven’t left you because I love you, Danse.” In an instant his face flushed red and he wanted to look away but something in her expression told him he wouldn’t be able to get away with that. “And if you’re not going to say it I will.” His lips open and closed wordlessly, at a loss for what to say. Just like that, doubt took root in her eyes. “Do you, I mean… do you feel the same or did I just totally read everything wrong?”

Slowly he nodded, swallowing hard before attempting to speak. “No, I love you too. I just never… I wouldn’t have dared dream…” She offered her hand and he took it. “Thank you.”

Her laugh once again graced the world. “What are you thanking me for?” She shook her head before giving him a chance to answer. They both knew anyways. “Come on, let’s get back.” Before they moved again she leaned up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Was that okay?” He answered with a nod. Surely, he didn’t deserve to be so lucky. Then again, he didn’t plan to question something so good.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos keep me going so if you enjoyed please consider leaving one or both <3


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